Just Being a Mum

You Capture was for Holiday Pictures, but unfortunately that was last weeks, but I wasn’t around so I am doing mine this week.  This weeks You Capture was to do a year in review and I think that might be a bit tricky, you will all be bored with all the photos if I did that. I will attempt to do a year in review post next week.

I have done my holiday pictures from our Christmas day, as it was such a great day, and lots of pictures were taken. So here we go.

First we start in the kitchen, which is where most of our Christmas day was spent, in

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I would just like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

I hope that you have a wonderful and safe few days with your family, it is a wonderful time of the year when we all get together and have some fun and family time.

Just enjoy yourselves!

I hope that Santa is nice to you all this year, even if it is just a hug and a kiss from someone very special to you. You deserve it!.

Will see you all next week sometime, I am going to enjoy a few wonderful days with my wonderful family, you do the same!.

Traditional Australian Christmas Dessert

This is a really yummy dessert, in Australia it is a traditional dessert for Christmas Day. I am not sure where the tradition comes from, I can’t seem to find anyone that knows. It just seems to be that way, and we have one every year. You can have it at other times of the year of course.

You will need

6 Egg whites
1 1/2 cups (300g) caster sugar
2 tsp white vinegar
1 tb cornflour
300ml thickened cream

Fruit to decorate - Banana, Mango, Kiwifruit, Passionfruit, Berries (fresh or frozen).

Tips:
- Make sure the bowl you are using is well washed and free of grease.
- Refrigerate eggs before separating: the yolks will separate

Continue reading Pavlova - Australian Dessert

Every year since the Little man was born we have taken a family Christmas photo to send in our Christmas Cards.

I recieve a couple of cards that have a letter telling everyone what they have been doing during the year, but I decided that I would prefer to send a photo of us, that way they can keep it from year to year and see how much we have changed.

Thought that I would share all the Christmas Photos that I have put in our cards for the last 4 years.

Our First Year - 2006

2007 - Just the three of us

2008 - Now with two

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This Weeks You Capture was to take pictures of your favourite Christmas Decor, being a bit creative, if you have it in you of course.

Well I wasn’t really sure what to do with this one, so I have just taken some shots of a couple of my favourite christmas decorations from in my house.

Firstly is the Advent Calender, I really love it. I know what you are going to say when you see the pictures, “why doesn’t she have anything in her calender. Well here is the thing, I bought some lollies and chocolates to put in each day, which I did, but I noticed that they were not surviving

Continue reading You Capture - Favourite Christmas Decor

Dance Along with Santa

I think every house has something to add to Christmas, in their own little way. The Little peoples Nana & Pop have the dancing Santa.

The first couple of years the Little Man didn’t know what to think of him, he was a little bit scary. As you can see by the picture he is almost full size. But this year he is a winner!, Little Miss hasn’t been scared at all.

The Dancing Santa sings Christmas songs and dances along with them, he even moves his mouth with the words. Yes you can even plug in a microphone and sing along with him.

He usually scares the crap out

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Flowers Can Finish a Room

Obviously there are going to be different flowers available and growing in different countries of the world. I grew up in England so I know what it is like to have a Christmas in Winter and there are not many flowers. You could decorate your house with many other things, like:

Sprig of Rosemary
Pine needles or cones
Oranges studded with cloves
or a bunch of Cinnamon sticks
They not only look great they smell great too.

As it is Summer here in Australia, we still have flowers blooming, my garden is full of Hydrangeas and Agapanthas, so I have decorated my house with these flowers. They are such pretty flowers, it

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Christmas Cards in a Tree Shape

Since it is not very long until Christmas, you will notice a bit of a Christmas theme happening this week on Justbeingamum, Funny that.

So why not start with the Christmas Cards, I always wonder what I am going to do with them every year. I don’t want them to just stack up in a pile and do nothing with them. You could go and buy one of those you beaut fancy card holders, only to find that there are not enough spaces for all the cards, or it keeps falling off the wall.

Well this year I found this idea and I think it is fantastic,

Continue reading Arrange your Christmas Cards

Great for your Christmas Table

I made this for our Christmas table last year and it looked fantastic, it was pretty good to eat afterwards too. In the hot weather you have to be a bit careful, by the end of lunch it was leaning over a bit, the icing that was holding the stars together slowly softened.

TIP : Can make the stars the day before but need to assemble about an hour before putting on the table.

Ingredients

3 1/3 cups (500g) plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
150g unsalted butter, softened
175g dark brown sugar
150g honey
1 egg
Icing - you can make your own or

Continue reading Gingerbread Christmas Tree